LEGO, eager to join other large corporations showing solidarity with the George Floyd protestors, announced that it would be donating $4 million to organizations teach children about racial inequality. It also announced that it would stop promoting over two dozen politically incorrect sets that showcase police officers in a positive manner.
Reports circulated that LEGO was pulling these sets from the market. However, when the company confirmed that this was not the case, hell broke loose on social media as angry social justice warriors took to Twitter to vent their wrath.
It goes to show that, no matter how much you show the mob how “woke” you are — it will never be enough.
Over two dozen LEGO sets have been affected by the move as the toy maker is asking affiliates to stop promoting all sets with law enforcement officials, including the Mobile Command Center, Fire Plane, LEGO City Police Station, Police Dog Unit, and the LEGO City Donut Shop Opening Set.
LEGO will also stop promoting the adult version of the White House set, likely because of President Donald Trump’s less than woke response to the protests.
However, parents who want these sets can still buy them, a situation that many far-left activists and individuals find appalling. Some are calling for LEGO to immediately pull these sets from the market while others are accusing LEGO of putting in too many police officers in LEGO City. Some threatened to never buy LEGO sets again while one user vowed to use an upcoming trip to LEGOLAND to tell everyone at the venue how horrible LEGO is.
Naturally, not every member of LEGO’s online community is a far-left progressive. One user pointed out the obvious fact that LEGO police officers can hardly be compared to corrupt police officers in the real world. After all, LEGO’s city sets aren’t real cities, and the people in them aren’t real either.
An African-American LEGO fan who is married to a police officer noted that their child enjoys playing with the police-themed sets, something that could likely be said of tens of thousands of children of all ages and walks of life. Furthermore, as one astute LEGO user pointed out, many sets with featuring police officers also feature other people so kids who don’t want to role-play cops have other options.
LEGO clearly intended to appear “woke” by jumping into this cultural firestorm. Predictably, the effort backfired tremendously.
It just goes to show that, once again — if you go woke, you go broke.
Featured Image by Willis Lam
